Asbo-breach octogenarian facing jail

An 81-year-old woman has been told she faces jail for harassing her neighbours and breaching the conditions of her Asbo, the BBC reports.

Dorothy Evans, of Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, will appear for sentencing at Cardiff Crown Court after being found guilty of a sustained campaign against next door neighbours Angela and Roberto Casa. Between January and June 2006 she made their lives "absolute hell", a trial in February heard.

On one occassion, Evans "told the Casas' 13-year-old daughter she was a witch and would cast a spell on her family and kill her pet dog". Angela Casa "claimed the pensioner called her a prostitute and also that she tried to run her off the road on several occasions and had hit her with a walking stick".

Mrs Evans had four previous convictions for harassment and eight convictions for breaching a restraining order, between 1999 and 2005, the court heard.

Evans was found guilty on one count of harassing her neighbours and six charges of breaching her Asbo. Judge Roderick Denyer QC warned Evans that, despite her advanced years, he was "seriously contemplating a prison sentence" - described as "the only way of bringing home to her that she could not go on behaving like this".

Evans failed to attend the earlier hearing due to a hospital appointment. The judge further warned her that if she failed to show up for sentencing without a "very good reason", he'd issue a warrant for her arrest.

Angela Casa said of the verdict: "I don't really care what the sentence is, I just hope she never speaks to me again. I just want to be able to get up in the morning and go out into my garden without having to worry about abuse." ®